2.14 Songs, the Dark Gem, and Mystery

An episode of diary entries — Sunday, 20 September 2020 — 12:05 p.m. — “The Song of the Volga Boatmen” — The emotional arc of waking up on some days — A feature of art — Emotional underpinnings — 12:22 p.m. — Norm Macdonald video of Letterman appearances — “Calypso Blues” by Nat King Cole (music) & Don George (lyrics) — A song that can bring a smile — Version by Mona Baptiste (early 1950s) — Sultry, interesting, relaxed — 23 September, 12:31 a.m. — Rod Serling talking to a group of young writers — Norm Macdonald’s comment on The Twilight Zone — Probably the best TV series of all time — If only one TV series could survive — Only the original series — A series that gives you something — Alienation, loneliness, times of feeling lost in life, etc. — Dark in a healthy, helpful way — Northern Exposure — Anyone who watches it will benefit from the experience — The opposite of heavy — Back to The Twilight Zone — The dark gem — Should play in all countries at odd hours — Always swimming in our collective electrical subconscious — A pure, clarifying anger — Rod Serling cared — Genuine mystery and imagination — A sense of theatre — Virtually all science fiction series try to be multimillion-dollar films — The real gold of the future — The virtues of theatre — Most creators of science fiction, horror, or fantasy have no sense of imagination and mystery — David Lynch was right — Mystery is no longer appreciated — It can bring any type of story alive — Things that won’t — Mystery, imagination, heart, and magic — 7 October 2020, 8:31 p.m. — Long pause — Even one great song — Songwriting — There had never been a song like “Riders in the Sky” — The kernel from which Ennio Morricone unfolded his western music — A reminder about life — Now is the only time — Quote from Kim Stanley Robinson’s Pacific Edge (1988, from the Three Californias Trilogy) — “What do you talk about when you’re falling in love?” — When the apocalypse comes — Its own paradise — We don’t get everything — Fate is a strange thing